Odd New Lens?

[richard l. stack]

Can anyone help me i got a 8x10 Kodak 2d with a SEROCA Rapid Rectilinear lens marked 8X10--5160 the shutter is Marked UNICUM F8-128 Bausch Lomb opt co. pat;Jan 6 '91' does any one know about this lens in advance thank you Richard

[Gene McCluney]

What you have is a SEROCO (SEars ROebuck COmpany) private label of a Wollensak or Bausch & Lomb (I think) rapid rectilinear lens. Rapid Rectilinear lenses were the most popular design lenses in the early part of the 20th Century. They can be very sharp. Since it says 8x10, it is probably a 300mm lens. Its not particularly rare, and it is probably not 19th century. You can't date lenses by patent dates, other than to say it was made after the date.

In the first decade of the 20th century, Sears had a complete catalog of photographic materials including view cameras, studio cameras, lenses, and all types of materials for producing photographs.

[richard l. stack]

tanks for fast reply;know anything about the brass shutter and glass worth fixing?rr couldthis be mounted in a new type shutter like in a copo?l

[Neil Purling]

Does the shutter work at all? If you have the retaining ring for that Unicum shutter you can at least make some test exposures to see if the lens is to your liking. The shutter was marketed on it's own, but in this case I would say it is quite likely the lens is also by B&L. The 'Unicum' is a two blade design, which operates like a blinking human eye. A air damper controls the higher speeds, the other cylinder is a pneumatic remote trip device.
It may well be possible to re-mount the optics, the bill may make you wince though.
I had a 150mm f5.8 Beck Biplanat mounted into a Copal #1. I think you may need a Copal #3, a 12" f8 R.R. is a pretty big chunk of glass.

[GPS]

Even properly cleaned the Unicum shutter is not reliable for shooting transparency film. It has problems inherent to its mechanical construction.

[GPS]

...
Its not particularly rare, and it is probably not 19th century. You can't date lenses by patent dates, other than to say it was made after the date.

In the first decade of the 20th century, Sears had a complete catalog of photographic materials including view cameras, studio cameras, lenses, and all types of materials for producing photographs.

His Unicum shutter with its lens probably is from 19th century. They were mostly used between 1891-1897 and not many years after as the Kodak ball bearing shutter replaced them quite quickly. Therefore lenses that use them can be dated with reasonable precision.

[vickersdc]

Here's a picture of my lens / shutter from my Pony Premo - also with the same patent date as you suggest. This shutter didn't appear to work when I got it, but with a little bit of cleaning it's come back to life. I've written an article about it for the magazine in March.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3115/3222204397_1c7ddfbb62.jpg

But - do you have any pictures of your lens / shutter assembly for comparison? These pneumatic shutters (and these vintage cameras too) are new territory for me!

Cheers,
David.